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Saturday, July 12, 2014

Texas Connections Academy is not "free" like is advertises

I got information from the Texas Connections Academy, a full-time virtual charter school. I did a little research on them and this is what came up. I have many concerns but will only list three—as I mainly want you to read this write-up by a group called the Center for Media and Democracy.

First, their advertisement announces "free" services since it does
not charge students, but SourceWatch indicates that this really isn't so. Taxpayers are footing the bill here with their hard-earned tax dollars and handing them over to Pearson, Inc., a private for-profit conglomerate : "Connections Education, that made an estimated $190 million in
revenue in 2011." (see below) These are monies that are as a result NOT going into public education that consequently is party to the systematic undermining of public education.

Second, how is a parent supposed to know not only if this is a high
performing academy, but also whether your child is better off going to this
school than a brick and mortar one? And I'm not talking about understandable situations like in rural contexts that could, in some or many instances, benefit, but rather families like myself in an urban context that gets a mailer on it in the mail.

So if you look at the FAQs on their webpage on the TCA evaluation, here's what it says:

AdvancED which accredits the school shows up as this non-descript website that you have to log into. It obviously can't or won't provide this information in the full light of day which smacks of un-professionalism, at best, and dishonesty, at worst.

They probably don't want the public to find out, among so many other things, just how poorly children in Connections Academy in Ohio fared where their schools failed to meet adequate yearly progress by LARGE
margins. This doesn't matter for CA anyway because they still got their money—a whopping $19.2 million for a grand total of 3,123 students. What a sham and what a terrible disservice to the children and parents that fall prey to this nonsense.

Third, is the viability of establishing meaningful, interpersonal relationships online—especially when we know that these are vital to learning, socialization, and ultimately, mobility in school and life.

I agree with the recommendation that we cap
growth of full-time charter schools. The for-profit motive together with the extant data are sufficiently troubling for this to be a hopeful direction for our nation's children.-Angela

Connections Academy is a division of Connections Education, LLC, which is owned by the UK-based, publicly-traded international media conglomerate Pearson PLC (LSE:PSON, NYSE:PSO).

The company's website says it provides "free" services since it does
not charge students, but the services are far from free as they divert
taxpayer dollars from the public school system to a private for-profit
firm, Connections Education, that made an estimated $190 million in
revenue in 2011.[1]

Connections Academy contracts with public school districts and charter schools to provide online classes for K-12 students.[2] Connections Academy had 21 schools and more than 27,000 students in the 2010-11 school year.[3] But some of those schools are failing. In September 2013, Politico
reported that, "Ohio’s six biggest cyber schools all got Fs on their
state progress reports, meaning students learned nowhere near a year’s
worth of material in a year of studying online." Ohio Connections
Academy received $19.2 million in taxpayer funds for 3,123 students, but
those students are failing to meet adequate yearly progress by large
margins (-11.3 in reading, -15.7 in math, -17.2 overall.)[4]

Connections Academy has ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council
(ALEC) and other organizations promoting a for-profit educational model
from which it stands to benefit financially. Both on its own and as a
member of ALEC,
Connections Academy has pushed a national agenda to replace brick and
mortar classrooms with computers and replace actual teachers with
"virtual" teachers. Many have questioned the company's extraordinary
revenues, generated at taxpayers' expense.[5]
There has also been criticism of the quality of the teachers, the lack
of government oversight and democratic accountability, as well as the
appropriateness of taking children as young as five out of a classroom
of their peers and putting them in front of a computer screen, according
to the Washington Post.[6][7]

For many years, there was simply no data on virtual school
performance. In 2012-13, state data became available indicating poor
student achievement, as well as high student turnover, high
student-teacher radios, uncertified teachers in some states (such as
Florida),[8]
and a funding formula that often gives companies extended periods of
public funds for a child when the child may only stay at the cyber
school for a brief period of time.[3]This
new information has led some educators to call for a moratorium on the
growth of full-time charter schools until policy-makers can assess the
reasons for their significant failure to educate children.[9]

FOUNDING AND OWNERSHIP: Sylvan Ventures started Connections Academy in 2001, opening its first schools in 2002, according to the company's website.[2] In 2004, it was sold to Apollo Management, L.P., a corporate investor specializing in real estate.[10]
In 2011, Connections Academy expanded to form a new corporate entity,
Connections Education, which includes Connections Academy (operator of
"online public schools" and an "online private school" through
International Connections Academy), Nexus Academy (a "tuition-free,
college preparatory, blended learning experience" for high school
students), and Connections Learning (provider of various individual
"courses, clubs and activities").[11][2] Later in 2011, Connections Education was acquired by Pearson Education, part of the global corporation Pearson PLC.[12]PROFITS: According to Pearson's 2011 Annual Report, the
company's share value increased by 20 percent in 2011 compared to the
preceding year (before it acquired Connections Education), with revenues
of over 5.8 billion British pounds, or more than $9.2 billion.[13][14] (Its adjusted operating profit for 2010 was 942 million British pounds, or $1.1 billion.)[15]
In 2012, Pearson took in 6.1 billion British pounds (about $9.7
billion) in revenues, with an adjusted operating profit of 936 million
British pounds (approximately $1.5 billion).[16][17]BUSINESS MODEL: Connections Academy currently operates
tuition-free online "public schools" under management contracts from
charter schools or school districts in Arizona, California, Colorado,
Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina,
Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, and Wyoming in 2013, according to the company's
website.[2]

In recent years, there has been an explosion of virtual schools (also
called internet schools, cyber schools, and online schools). From 2008
to 2012, 157 bills passed in 39 states and territories (including the
District of Columbia) that expand online schooling, regulate virtual
education, or modify existing regulations, according to a National
Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) database.[18]
Many of these bills are attributable to American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC) politicians. As discussed below, ALEC passed a "model"
virtual schools act in 2004.
Until recently, data on performance was scarce, but educators at the
National Education Policy Center (NEPC) did two of the first empirical
studies in 2012 and 2013 on the effectiveness of full-time online
schools. The authors concluded that despite the amount of taxpayer
dollars going towards these schools, there is "very little solid
evidence to justify the rapid expansion of virtual education." One of
the studies, looking at state data on performance, shows major problems
with cyber schools. The 2013 report by NEPC notes, "on the common
metrics of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), state performance rankings,
and graduation rates, full-time virtual schools lag significantly behind
traditional brick-and-mortar schools."[3]
In the 2010-2011 school year, only 23.6 percent of virtual schools
met AYP standards, whereas 52 percent of brick-and-mortar public school
districts and charter schools met the same progress standards.[3]
According to another (2012) report by NEPC, "Among the large-sized
EMOs, those companies with the lowest proportion of schools meeting AYP
are White Hat Management (7 percent), Charter Schools USA (10 percent),
Educational Services of America Inc. (10 percent), Connections Academy (27 percent), Academica (29 percent), and K12 Inc. (33 percent)" (emphasis added).[19]

The same study also shows that on-time graduation rates are much
lower on average at online schools than at all public schools in the
United States: only 37.6 percent of students at virtual high schools
graduate on time, whereas the national average for all public high
schools is 79.4 percent, more than twice that.[3] Other critics have wondered where some of the taxpayer dollars directed to online schools end up.
A September 2013 Politico investigation of Ohio virtual
schools found that, of the six biggest online schools in the state, they
all received "failing grades" from the Ohio Department of Education for
academic performance. Ohio Connections Academy received $19.2 million
in taxpayer funds for 3,123 students, but those students are failing to
meet adequate yearly progress by large margins (-11.3 in reading, -15.7
in math, -17.2 overall.)[20]

A study of the performance of Pennsylvania online charter schools by the
Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford
University in 2011 found that 100 percent of cyber charters performed
"significantly worse than their traditional public school counterparts
in both reading and math.”[21]
A ten-month investigation of Colorado virtual schools found that half
of the students of online schools left within a year, and that when
they returned to brick-and-mortar schools they were often further behind
academically than when they started.[22]

Low-Cost Education Yields High Profits and Poor Academic Outcomes

Connections Academy saves money by not having buildings, classrooms,
books, etc., and also cuts costs by reducing curriculum and teachers,
according to the New York Times.[1]
During a presentation at the Virginia legislature in 2011, a
representative of Connections Academy explained that its services were
available at three price points per student:

"Option A: $7,500, a student-teacher ratio of 35-40 to 1, and an average teacher salary of $45,000.

"Option B: $6,500, a student-teacher ratio of 50 to 1, with less experienced teachers paid $40,000.

"Option C: $4,800 and a student-teacher ratio of 60 to 1, as well as a narrower curriculum."[1]

According to the report by the New York Times:

"Despite lower operating costs, the online companies collect nearly
as much taxpayer money in some states as brick-and-mortar charter
schools. In Pennsylvania, about 30,000 students are enrolled in online
schools at an average cost of about $10,000 per student. The state
auditor general, Jack Wagner, said that is double or more what it costs
the companies to educate those children online."[1]

Apart from earning profits at the taxpayers' expense, Connections
Academy and other online schools consistently fail to meet academic
standards at the level of brick-and-mortar public schools. Data show
that virtual students trail traditional students by almost every
academic metric, as reported by the Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter in Wisconsin.[23]

Other Controversies

Spending Taxpayer Dollars on Advertising to Pump Up Attendance Numbers and Taxpayer Subsidies

A 2012 article in USA Today revealed that 10 of the biggest
for-profit online K-12 schools (including Connections, which is the
second largest) "have spent millions in taxpayer dollars on advertising"
-- $94.4 million from 2007 to 2012.[24]

Jim Buckheit, executive director of the Pennsylvania Association of School Administrators, told the New York Times,
"Some of the cyber charter schools have fairly aggressive recruitment
campaigns. . . . They have vans, billboards, TV and radio ads. They set
up recruitment meetings in area hotels and invite parents to come."[1]

The massive advertising pulls in parents, students, and state money,
but students often do not stay in the cyber school, and one study
indicates that "churn" -- or turnover -- of students could be more than
50 percent in some schools.[3]

More than Double the "Churn" Rates of Brick-and-Mortar Schools in Arizona

Arizona Connections Academy has "reported that 30 percent of enrolled
students leave sometime during the school year," according to the Arizona Republic.
In comparison, Mesa Unified, the school's largest district, had a
"churn" rate of 12 percent in the 2010-2011 school year. The Arizona Republic
report added that "doubts about quality plague Arizona's online
schools," and "the largest online schools in K-12 lag the state averages
among all Arizona public schools in most standardized test scores and
in graduation rates. Turnover of students is high, which indicates many
students have failed to get traction in mastering their courses or
maintaining their motivation."[25]

Influencing Education in the States

Connections Academy has sought to dramatically change the face of
state-level education policy to favor its for-profit education agenda,
sometimes with the help of ALEC and the Foundation for Excellence in Education (see more about FEE below). Below are some examples where the firm has succeeded in diverting public funds to private for-profit education:

Maine

In Maine, Governor Paul LePage has worked closely with national
virtual school lobbying groups to craft Maine's education policy.[26] Connections Academy has hired former Maine State Chamber of Commerce lobbyist and GOP legislative staffer Chris Jackson[27] to lobby for the company in 2011 and 2013, according to the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.[28][29]
Governor LePage, whose administration has put a priority on
subsidizing for-profit education corporations with public funds, named
Stephen Bowen as Commissioner of the Maine Department of Education in
2011. Bowen was a member of the ALECEducation Task Force when he worked on the staff of the Maine Heritage Policy Center, a member of the right-wing web of groups called the State Policy Network.[30]
In January 2013, LePage called for the resignation of Maine Charter
School Commission members who turned down four out of five charter
school applications, including a repeat attempt by K12 Inc. and Connections Academy.[26]

Wisconsin

In March 2011, Rep. Robin Vos, former ALEC state chairman for Wisconsin, introduced Assembly Bill 51,
which was to erase the cap on the number of pupils who may attend
virtual charter schools and weaken teacher licensing requirements.[5] AB 51 drew from a number of ALEC bills, especially the "Next Generation Charter Schools Act,"
which includes the idea of an authorizing board that makes it easier to
establish charter schools over the objections of school districts and
other school officials, and the "Charter Schools Act," which states that charter schools are to be funded at a per-pupil rate, as public schools are.[5]

On February 10, 2011, Thomas Fonfara of Arrowhead Strategies, LLC
registered as a lobbyist on behalf of Connections Academy/Connections
Education LLC. Between that date and June 30, 2011, Connections paid him
$24,000[31]
for "development, drafting or introduction of a proposal relating to
virtual charter schools" or "virtual schools," intending to affect "both
legislative matter and rule," according to the Wisconsin Government
Accountability Board.[32]

Connections Academy was a private sector chair of the ALEC Education Task Force
at the time the Charter School Reform Bill (AB 51-SB 22) was introduced
and stood to benefit from its passage through its Wisconsin Connections
Academy.[5] When the bill failed to pass, Governor Scott Walker
instead added a provision to the state budget to lift the enrollment
cap on virtual charter schools, while the budget simultaneously stripped
$834 million from Wisconsin public schools.[33]

Connections had previously hired Thomas Fonfara to lobby on its behalf from 2006 to 2008.[34]
In January 2008, the Wisconsin state legislature introduced AB 697 and
SB 396 relating to "virtual charter schools" and "online courses for
elementary and secondary school pupils and granting rule-making
authority."[35][36]
In the first half of 2008, Connections Academy spent over $35,000 in
lobbying expenditures to Fonfara and his firm at the time, Quarles &
Brady, lobbying on these two bills and another related virtual schools
bill.[37]
SB 396, a compromise bill to keep Wisconsin's virtual schools open
after an appeals court ruled that the largest virtual school in the
state had violated state law,[38] was signed by Governor Jim Doyle on April 7, 2008,[35] and became the 2007 Wisconsin Act 222.

Ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council

Connections Academy was a long-time member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Mickey Revenaugh,
Connections Academy co-founder and Executive Vice President of Sales
and Marketing at the Connections Learning division under Pearson, was
the co-chair of ALEC's Education Task Force as of May 2012.[39][40][41] Connections Academy was heavily involved in ALEC's model bill, the "Virtual Public Schools Act,"
which makes online schools recognized public schools, meaning they must
be given the same resources and funding as other public schools in that
state (see below for more).

About ALEC

ALEC
is a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it
is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state
legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations
fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task
forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with
elected officials to approve “model” bills. Learn more at the Center for
Media and Democracy's ALECexposed.org, and check out breaking news on our PRWatch.org site.

In July 2012, a Connections Academy spokesperson told the Center for
Media and Democracy (CMD) that it had cut ties with ALEC in order to
align "our affiliations with organizations whose central focus is
education."[42] (See Corporations that Have Cut Ties to ALEC and ALEC Corporations for more.)
ALEC bills benefiting Connections Academy are still moving across the
country, however. At least 139 bills promoting a private, for-profit
education model were introduced in 43 states and the District of
Columbia in the first half of 2013, and 31 became law, according to
"ALEC at 40: Turning Back the Clock on Prosperity and Progress," an
August 2013 report by the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD).[43]

Virtual Public Schools Act

ALEC and K12 Inc. work together to cash in on kids

Connections Academy, together with another for-profit provider of online education, K12 Inc., was heavily involved in ALEC's model bill, the "Virtual Public Schools Act,"
which makes online schools recognized public schools, meaning they must
be given the same resources and funding as other public schools in that
state. As noted by PRWatch, the ALEC bill "provides that virtual
schools should be paid the same per pupil rate as public schools that
actually provide bricks and mortar public schools, with desks, heating
and A/C, lunch ladies, playgrounds, gyms, in-person teachers, and
extracurricular activities like sports, orchestra, and student
councils."[44]

In 2004 when the "model" bill was drafted and approved, both
Connections Academy and K12 Inc. were part of the "School Choice
Subcommittee" of ALEC's Education Task Force,
according to an archived version of ALEC's website from February 2005.
The subcommittee recommended six bills for adoption, including the
"Virtual Public Schools Act." According to ALEC, the bill was drafted by
Mickey Revenaugh of Connections Academy along with Bryan Flood of K12 Inc., then-Colorado Representative Don Lee (now a lobbyist for K12 Inc.), "and the rest of the Subcommittee."[45]

The bill was approved at a closed-door meeting of the ALECEducation Task Force in December 2004 and became model legislation in January 2005, when ratified by ALEC's Board of Directors.[46]
The "Virtual Public Schools Act" is still moving in 2013. Between
January and August 2013, state bills similar to ALEC's "model" were
introduced in Arizona and Maine and passed in Michigan (HB 4228),
according to CMD's report on ALEC bills in 2013.[43]

Previous to 2013, the bill was introduced in at least Mississippi,
Maine, Tennessee, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Texas, according to a
September 2012 report by In the Public Interest (ITPI). The bill paved
"the way for corporations to offer virtual online classes to public
school students. In many of these states, legislators that sponsored
this legislation were members of ALEC," according to ITPI, which
describes itself as "a comprehensive resource center on privatization
and responsible contracting."[47]

The legislation offers enormous opportunities for the corporations
that promoted it with the help of ALEC. In the states that have passed
the model bill, these companies have strong operations. Connections
Academy runs a virtual public school in Texas and has schools under
development in Tennessee and Virginia.[48]

Parent Trigger Act

Connections Academy was the private sector chair of ALEC's Education Task Force when the task force approved the "Parent Trigger Act,"[49]
which allows parents at any failing school -- defined by standardized
testing -- to sign a petition to radically transform the school using
any of four "triggers": Parents can petition to 1) fire the principal,
2) fire half of the teachers, 3) close the school and let parents find
another option, or 4) convert the school into a charter school. "Parent
Trigger" was romanticized in the Hollywood film, "Won't Back Down", in
which filmmakers portrayed the laws as an effective mechanism for
transforming underperforming public schools. In actuality, only two
school districts have used the petition mechanism. One petition was
thrown out by the courts. And both petitions, "instead of prompting
reform-minded unity, . . . have been criticized for creating 'chaos and
division' in the community," as noted by PRWatch.[50] The ALEC Education Task Force voted to approve the "Parent Trigger Act" in December 2010,[49]
and the idea quickly spread. According to analysis by CMD, ALEC members
had introduced or cosponsored various versions of the bill in 17 states
as of September 2012,[50]
and 12 more states introduced similar bills in the first half of 2013,
with one such bill (HB 1385) being signed into law in Oklahoma.[43]

Ties to Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education

Connections Academy has funded the Foundation for Excellence in Education (FEE), a non-profit education reform advocacy group founded by former Florida governor Jeb Bush, according to emails released by the non-profit privatization resource organization In the Public Interest.[51]
FEE is "backed by many of the same for-profit school corporations that
have funded ALEC and vote as equals with its legislators on templates to
change laws governing America's public schools," as noted by PRWatch.
Bush's group is also "bankrolled by many of the same hard-right
foundations bent on privatizing public schools that have funded ALEC"
and "they have pushed many of the same changes to the law, which benefit
their corporate benefactors and satisfy the free market fundamentalism
of the billionaires whose tax-deductible charities underwrite the agenda
of these two groups."[13]
As In the Public Interest reports, e-mails between FEE and
conservative state education officials in Florida, New Mexico, Maine,
Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Louisiana show that the foundation is
writing state education laws and regulations in ways that could benefit
its corporate funders:

"The emails, obtained through public records requests, reveal that
the organization, sometimes working through its Chiefs For Change
affiliate, wrote and edited laws, regulations and executive orders,
often in ways that improved profit opportunities for the organization’s
financial backers. Bush has been referred to as the 'godfather' of
Chiefs for Change, an alliance of conservative state superintendents and
education department directors with significant authority over
purchasing and policy in their states."[52]

"Risk Factors" in SEC filings

In its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings,
publicly traded companies are required to highlight for shareholders any
“risk factors” in their sector that could affect their business and
future prospects. These risk factors, which are listed in the annual
report (Form 10-K) often show the incentives the company has to
influence public policy and the direction their advocacy would take.
As a privately held company, Connections Education (parent
corporation of Connections Academy) has no obligation to file a 10-K
form with the federal government. However, its owner, UK-based Pearson,
has an annual report that is publicly available. In its latest report,
Pearson cites "education regulation and funding" as principal risks,
high in both probability and impact, that may adversely affect its
"business strategy, financial position or future performance."[15] With regard to education regulation and government funding of its United States operations, Pearson states:

"In the US we actively monitor changes through participation in
advisory boards and representation on standard setting committees. . . .
We work through our own government relations team . . . [to monitor]
municipal funding and the impact on our education receivables."[16]

Political Activity

Connections Education has spent $270,000 on education lobbying at the
federal level from 2009 to 2011: $60,000 in 2009 (as Connections
Academy), $120,000 in 2010, and $90,000 in 2011.[53]
At the state level, Connections Education registered lobbyists in
nine states from 2010 through 2012, the three years since it was
founded,[54] while Connections Academy and its state-based affiliates have lobbied in 27 states from 2003 through 2012.[55]
In Wisconsin alone, Connections Academy has spent over $92,000 lobbying
on the issue of virtual public schools, according to a review of
Wisconsin Government Accountability Board data by the Center for Media
and Democracy.[56]
In 2011, the progressive group Our Oregon reported that
freshman Oregon State Rep. Matt Wingard (R-Wilsonville), a vocal
advocate of online schools and Connections Academy in particular, was
actually on the payroll of Connections Academy while in public office in
at least 2008.[57]
It also noted that the President of Oregon Connections Academy is Jeff
Kropf, former state legislator and later state director of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity.[58]

Personnel

Chief Executive Officer

Barbara Dreyer is a Connections Academy co-founder (with Mickey Revenaugh)
and currently its Chief Executive Officer and President. Information
about her compensation is not available as of September 2013. She
previously founded two technology companies: Speakout.com/Ntercept
Communications, a web research group that existed from 1999 to 2002, of
which she was also Chief Operating Officer;[59] and VideoGrafects, a multimedia development company, of which she was also President.[60][61]
She also has previous experience in accounting as well as in
telecommunications, venture capital, and chemical manufacturing firms,
but no known previous experience in education.[62]

Jump up ↑American Legislative Exchange Council, Virtual Public Schools Act,
organizational "model" legislation, approved January 2005, obtained and
released by the Center for Media and Democracy July 2011, accessed
September 2013.